Supporting and servicing our community and businesses through unchartered territory during the COVID-19 pandemic has been significant for Sunshine Coast during final quarter of the 2019-20 financial year.
Finance Portfolio Councillor Ted Hungerford said council had built and adapted support measures to assist the community during the pandemic and remained focused on service delivery for the health and wellbeing of our region.
“Council released portions two and three of its which included an economic resurgence plan to fast track the region’s economic recovery,” Cr Hungerford said.
“Some of the initiatives that were rolled out as part of these packages included the delivery of 25 council projects earlier than scheduled, which brought forward $3.4million in capital projects to keep residents in jobs and money flowing through our economy.
“Council also injected $15 million per month earlier into the local economy by expediting payments to local contractors within seven days (usually 30 days).
“Around $73 million was spent with local suppliers during the last quarter which represents 72% of Council’s total procurement spend.
“More than $1.1 million in grant funding was allocated by council through 257 community grants.
“Despite all of the challenges and effort invested in our response and recovery, council was still able to deliver 74% of the Operational Plan 2019-20 activities on schedule, including the first aircraft landing on the new 2450 metre international-standard runway at Sunshine Coast Airport.
“Council also adopted the $782 million budget for the 2020-21 financial year on 25 June 2020. The cornerstone of the budget is supporting our community to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Cr Hungerford said.
